Making Sense of Exodus pt 2
We’re picking up in the middle of Exodus, just after God miraculously saved His people from Pharaoh’s army by allowing them to walk through the sea on dry ground—before He violently drowned the Egyptian army in the collapsing walls of water. Chapter 15 is the Song of Moses, where the people worshiped God and sang their hearts out, The Lord is a warrior, the Lord is mighty in battle.
You would think that anyone who saw the things they saw, from the plagues to the dead soldiers floating in the water, would be so full of faith they could ride on that wave for the rest of their life. You would think, right? But that’s not the way the story goes.
There’s two big things I’m trying to do in this series: I want us all to have a better idea of how the books in the Bible fit together to tell the one story of how God is saving His people and fixing the world that we broke. I’m also hoping to show how the whole Bible points to Jesus, how as Christians, we don’t close the Bible until we see Him.
That’s not the way most of us have approached God’s Word in the past, though. We tend to read each story in isolation and point it at ourselves instead of Jesus. We tend to see the Old Testament in a completely different light than the New Testament and the Gospel. We really need to fix that.
The basic idea is this: we’re not supposed to forget that we’ve read the New Testament when we read the Old Testament. We don’t forget that we know about Jesus and the Cross and the resurrection when we read about Moses and Elijah and David and everything. When you see people going through water, don’t forget about baptism. When you see people eating bread and drinking wine, don’t forget about Communion. When you see the blood of sacrifices, don’t forget about the One who shed His blood for you.
So they walk through the sea on dry ground and they keep on walking. They follow the glory of the Lord as a cloud by day and a glowing fireball by night. Their own personal Aurora Borealis GPS system.
How could they ever doubt God again?
Three days later…
It’s the desert. It’s dry. It’s hot. They’re thirsty and they’ve run out of water. Three million people are looking at Moses like it’s his fault. They’re yelling and complaining. They come to a place called Marah (Bitter), there’s a nasty stagnant water oasis, the water is bad, it’s undrinkable. Moses is getting a little nervous.
He prays to God, and God shows him a tree. Moses cuts off a branch and throws it in the water. Ta-da! The water is good. Drinkable.
Here’s a Jesus thought: God saved them using a tree. The cross is often called a “tree” in Scripture. Also, this is like the opposite of the first plague where God turned the Nile into blood and ruined the water. And if you think that’s a stretch, listen to what God says at Marah:
“If you will listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his sight, obeying his commands and keeping all his decrees, then I will not make you suffer any of the diseases I sent on the Egyptians; for I am the Lord who heals you.” Exodus 15:26
Listen and obey the LORD and He won’t have to break out the Egyptian plagues.
They leave Marah and enter the Wilderness of Sin, which sounds really ominous. But that’s just it’s name—like the first three letters of Sinai. I mean, maybe God thought to Himself, “I can’t wait until these stories are told in English because Wilderness of Sin is a great band name!”
It had been a month since the Red Sea now. Their lunchboxes were empty. Once again, the people start glaring at Moses. “I wish God would have just killed us back in Egypt. At least there we had pot roast and all the bread we could eat. Oh to be a slave again! Now we’re going to starve to death!”
They were like my cat when his bowl’s half empty.
The people were looking to Moses, so Moses looked to the LORD.
God said He was going to start raining bread from heaven every morning. Food from heaven, the bread of Angels. It would just be on the ground in the morning, everyone was to scoop up a couple quarts for each person in their tent—bake it, boil it, eat it raw, whatever you want to do with it. But it had a really quick expiration date—every evening they had to throw out whatever they didn’t eat, if they didn’t, it would go bad, stink the place up and be covered in maggots by morning. No leftovers. They were to trust God each day for daily bread. Hmm, where have we heard that before?
One exception to this rule: since Saturday was going to be the Sabbath, the holy day set apart for rest and worship, God said there’d be enough bread on Friday to gather twice as much and it would still be good the next day. Somehow magic bread would know what day it was.
The next morning, when they woke up, sure enough, the ground was covered with a white substance. The people said, “What is this?” And as goofy as it sounds, that’s what they decided to call it. “What is this?” which in Hebrew is pronounced “Man-nah.” Manna.
The description says it was flakey and white, like coriander seeds—that it tasted like wafers and honey.
Hmm. A flakey, white, flat wafer. I’m going to go ahead and imagine that there was a cross stamped on it. Sounds like Communion to me. Ha. I’ve often thought “what is this?” when someone handed me a styrofoam disc and said that it’s bread.
God miraculously fed three million hungry people in the wilderness. Kinda like Jesus feeding the five thousand and the four thousand with fish and bread. He also said “I Am the Bread of Life.”
They’re following the glory cloud. They’re eating manna. How could anyone see these daily miracles and still have any doubt about God taking care of them?
Some time passes. They run out of water again. I mean, it is the desert. I suppose all that sticky sweet bread could make you thirsty.
The people complained again. They were more angry this time. Moses thought they were going to kill him. Not a good day when three million people are mad at you and got you surrounded in the wilderness. They’re yelling at him, “our children are going to die and we blame you!”
God tells Moses to take the staff, the one he struck the Nile with, and walk out in front of the people. God said that He would be standing on the rock at Mount Sinai. “Strike the rock and water will come gushing out.” And it did.
It wouldn’t have been a trickle. This was enough water for three million people. This was a river.
Now, where do you think you see Jesus in that story? Do you think I’d be stretching it if I reminded you that Jesus said He is the living water, that whoever drinks of it will never thirst? What if I talked about the water that flowed from His side when the soldier pierced him on the cross? Or the blood? Or the river that flows from the altar in Ezekiel and Revelation?
1 Corinthians 10:2 says this about it,
“In the cloud and in the sea, all of them were baptized as followers of Moses. All of them ate the same spiritual food, and all of them drank the same spiritual water. For they drank from the spiritual rock that traveled with them, and that rock was Christ.” 1 Corinthians 10:2
We don’t read the Old Testament as if we haven’t read the New Testament—we see Jesus everywhere. We read the entire Bible through the lens of the Gospel.
So they have a supernatural river flowing from a rock. They have magic bread every morning.
Then the pirates came.
Well, land pirates. The warriors of Amalek, the Amalekites, snuck up and attacked them like a bunch of punks—going after the weak and the vulnerable on the outskirts of camp.
Moses had a plan, a weird plan, but a plan.
He told Joshua, and this is the first time we meet him, he’s the leader that will take over for Moses someday, he told Joshua to put together some tough guys to go fight the army of Amalak. He said, “And I’m going to stand on top of that hill holding a magic stick!” He called it the Staff of God.
And I guess Joshua thought that sounded like a plan because he went and rounded up the meanest dudes he could find.
You know, the thing about slaves is they don’t usually know how to fight. You don’t train your slaves to be warriors—it’s not a good business strategy to teach them how to violently organize against you. This was the first time Israel came into conflict with anyone and had to actually fight. It certainly wouldn’t be the last, though.
So Joshua and the brute squad are down there fighting, Moses is up on the hill with Aaron and a guy named Hur (H-U-R). Whenever Moses held his hands up in the air, Team Joshua would be winning but whenever he put his arms down to rest, the Amalekites would start to take over.
You ever try to hold your hands up for a long time? Moses is over 80 years old and that stick kept getting heavy. So Aaron and Hur held his hands up until sunset.
Does the pose of someone holding his arms outstretched remind you of anything? Jesus had the whole weight of the world on His shoulders when He was up on a hill, He didn’t need help holding His arms up, though, because of the nails in His hands.
They beat the warriors of Amalek.
Moses, at some point, had sent his wife and kids back to Midian. His father-in-law, Jethro, a Midianite Priest, showed up at wilderness camp with the fam. Moses sat down with him in his tent and told him everything that had happened— from Pharaoh and the plagues, to the Red Sea and the water and the manna. He had been busy since they last visited right after the Burning Bush.
This is one of the coolest stories in the Bible, and it’s so short, you might have missed it.
Jethro, a pagan Midianite priest, was so impressed with the good news Moses told him he said this:
“Praise the LORD,” (Praise Yahweh!) Jethro said, “for he has rescued you from the Egyptians and from Pharaoh. Yes, he has rescued Israel from the powerful hand of Egypt! I know now that Yahweh is greater than all other gods, because he rescued his people from the oppression of the proud Egyptians.”
Then Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, brought a burnt offering and sacrifices to God. Aaron and all the elders of Israel came out and joined him in a sacrificial meal in God’s presence.” Exodus 18:10–12
Moses told his father-in-law, an unbeliever, about what God had done and Jethro believed. Moses shared his faith and Jethro was saved and worshiped God. See,that’s how it’s done.
It’s now been TWO months since Egypt, they arrived and set up camp at the base of Mount Sinai.
Moses goes up on the mountain to talk with God.
You know, God is everywhere. Why’d He drag them all the way to this mountain? He could have shown up at the Red Sea, and after they sang their worship song, He could have given them the Ten Commandments, instructions for the Tabernacle, explained how manna was going to work, and marched them straight to Canaan. Probably wouldn’t have taken more than a month to get there.
But He didn’t. He told Moses to bring them to Sinai, that’s where He promised to be in a special way for them. The same was going to be true for the Tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant. The same was going to be true for the Temple in Jerusalem. The same was going to be true for the Son of God who would be called Emmanuel, God with us. And the same is true for us.
Where has God promised to be located for you? He promises to be where two or three are gathered in His name. He has promised to be where His people gather in the name of Jesus. He has promised to be in the waters of baptism, the bread and wine of Communion. He has promised that His Spirit will dwell within you. You, corporately, as the church, are His body. He is in you and you are in Him, and He promises to be in the middle of all of us when we come together and assemble as the people of God to worship.
There’s a big lie going around that it doesn’t matter if we come together and worship. If we “go to church” or not. When we come together, that’s when we ARE the church. Not when we’re alone. Think about everything Moses and the people of Israel went through to get to the place where God promised to meet them—it mattered that they actually obeyed and went there. It matters that we obey, too.
He was serious. God told the people to establish a barrier around the base of the mountain. Anyone who crosses it, or even touches it was to be shot with arrows or stoned to death. Even animals. This mountain was now a holy place.
God said,
“Now if you will obey me and keep my covenant, you will be my own special treasure from among all the peoples on earth; for all the earth belongs to me. And you will be my kingdom of priests, my holy nation.” Exodus 19:5–6
See, this isn’t only about Israel. This is for all the peoples on earth. You and me included. They were to be a kingdom of priests. Not individually, but corporately. Just like in the New Testament the church is called a royal priesthood, a holy nation. We exist for the blessing and salvation of the whole world.
There’s a lot to this story but after the people were consecrated for worship, three days later, God put on quite a show at Sinai.
There was thunder and lightning like no one had ever seen before. The glory cloud of fire covered the mountain. The people were shaking in their sandals, terrified.
It was like the mountain became a volcano with smoke pouring out of the top. The earth shook.
The people thought they were doomed. “Should we run away? Is molten lava going to start pouring out of this thing and burn us alive?”
There’s a thunderous voice, it’s the voice of God. He calls Moses to come up the mountain.
Moses climbs up. God says, “you need to go back down there and warn them not to climb up here.”
Moses says, “It’s cool. I already told them that.”
God’s like, “No, you need to tell them again. Plus, they’re going to be really impressed when you emerge from this mountain spectacle. I have a few things to say to the people before you come back. Bring Aaron with you.”
Moses climbs back down the mountain and stands before the people.
Then God spoke to all the people and gave them “All these words.” We call these the Ten Commandments. The Bible never calls them that, and you have to squint pretty hard to find ten commandments, but this is when God tells them what kind of people He wants them to be.
He said, “I am Yahweh, your God. The One who rescued you from slavery.”
The first thing God tells them is His name and reminds them of what He’s done for them. This is the Gospel. We should think of this as “Jesus is LORD, Jesus is Yahweh, the One who saves you from slavery to the world, the flesh and the devil—from sin, death, and hell.”
Then He tells us the kind of people He saved us to be.
He said, “You shall have no other gods.” Don’t carve little statues to worship. Don’t make images of God. Jesus is the image of the invisible God, He’s enough. Don’t worship anything but God alone.
We talked about this a few months ago but it’s important to understand that when God says “you shall have no other gods.” It doesn’t just mean “you must not have other gods.” “Shall is stronger than that. When God says something shall be, His word creates that reality.
There will come a day when you shall have no other gods. When every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus is Lord. This is the promised future. One day it shall be a reality. Until then, you must not have any other gods.
Same for the rest of the Commandments. “Shall” is the reality we look forward to someday when Christ brings His kingdom in all its power and glory. “Shall” is like the horizon that you’re to walk toward until Jesus comes back. Until then, you must not use God’s name in anger or like a magic password. You must keep one day holy by resting from your labor, gathering with your church and worshiping God. You must honor your father and your mother, including other authority figures in your life, you must not murder or give in to anger against each other, you must not commit adultery (not even with your phone or your computer), you must not steal, or testify falsely against anyone, or covet things that don’t belong to you.
That’s a description of the kind of people God has saved you to be. You shall be that kind of person someday, but not because you finally get it right. Only by God’s grace and mercy. Only because He let’s you stand behind Jesus and His righteousness.
God is light. Blinding light. We’re shadows. What happens to shadows when they’re exposed to light? That’s why Jesus became a man, became flesh, so we can stand behind Him and not be burned up in the glory of God.
So the people heard God say all those things. They promised to obey everything the LORD commanded them to do. Cross their hearts. Moses took Aaron and 70 elders up on the mountain and they had a covenant meal where they sealed the deal, eating and drinking in the presence of God.
Do I need to point out that’s what we do in Communion? Or are you starting to get how this works?
Moses stays on the mountain, he sends the rest back down. God gives Moses the two tablets of stone with the ten words written on them by God’s own hand. He had Joshua keep lookout about halfway down the mountain and Moses talked with God for forty days.
About all kinds of stuff: He got the plans for the Tabernacle, the place where they would worship, the place where God’s presence would dwell among them. Explains a bunch of stuff about feasts and worship and fancy vestments for the priests. He’s very detailed.
You would think that a bunch of people who had heard the voice of God speaking to them from out of a pyrotechnic thunderstorming volcano would be inclined to wait patiently for the leader who had solved every single one of their problems. You would think.
You know that’s not how the story ends though. You know about the Golden Calf and the sexual orgy of a worship service they held while Moses was on the mountain talking to God for them.
All of a sudden, God interrupts himself and tells Moses, “nevermind, YOUR people have already broken their promise. They’re breaking every commandment as we speak. I like you Moses but I’m going to destroy them all and start over with you. They made a cow and they’re worshiping it. It’s ridiculous.”
But Moses stood between the blazing wrath of God and the stupid people. You should definitely be thinking Jesus here. He said, “Please don’t be angry with YOUR people. You brought them here. Turn away from Your fierce anger. Change Your mind about destroying them. Remember Your promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—these people ARE the descendants you promised them.”
So God had mercy on the people because of Moses.
Moses went back down and when he saw it for himself, he lost it. He smashed the tablets. Pounded the Golden Calf to little pieces and made the people eat it.
Aaron lied about the whole thing, and wasn’t killed—he got off pretty easy if you ask me.
Moses says, “Who’s with me?” And the Levites, the tribe that Moses was part of, took their swords and killed 3,000 people who had taken part in the cow worship. This is actually why the Levites became the priests of Israel, because they were willing to do what needed to be done, even when it meant choosing God and righteousness over their own family.
You might remember when Jesus said, “Anyone who loves their mother or father more than me is not worthy of me.” God takes faithfulness very serious.
Moses goes back up the mountain and confesses Israel’s sin. He pleads for God’s forgiveness. This is what Jesus has been doing for the church since the cross. “Father forgive them, they know not what they do.” Jesus is in heaven right now praying for you. 1st Timothy 2:5 says,
“There is one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity—the man Christ Jesus.” 1st Timothy 2:5
So God keeps His covenant with Israel, but He sends a plague on the people who danced around the Golden Calf. He had warned them.
Moses meets with God every day after that. One day he asked to see God’s glorious presence in a special way, something more tangible than a cloud. God said he can’t show His face or Moses would die, so somehow God hides Moses behind the crevice of a rock and allows Moses to see Him from behind. When the people saw Moses after that His face glowed like the sun. They couldn’t look at him. The shekinah glory. Moses had to put a veil over his face to protect them. Not just over his mouth and nose, his whole face.
Then God gave Moses a new set of Tablets to replace the ones he broke, and said these words, they’re probably the most glorious words in the Book of Exodus:
“I Am Yahweh! The LORD!
The God of compassion and mercy!
I am slow to anger
and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness.
I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations.
I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin.
But I do not excuse the guilty.
I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren;
the entire family is affected—
even children in the third and fourth generations.”
Exodus 34:6–7
Why is this good news? It sounds kind of harsh. “I don’t excuse the guilty, I lay the sins of the parents on their children and grandchildren—to the third and fourth generations.”
It’s good news because, Yahweh, the LORD is the God of compassion and mercy. Because He is slow to anger. Slow to anger sounds good to me. I know I give Him plenty of practice. Because He is filled with “Hesed.” An Old Testament word for grace. It means unfailing, steadfast love and deeply committed faithfulness to His people. He lavishes His love on His people to a thousand generations—there hasn’t been a thousand generations yet in the history of the world. When God was speaking to Moses He had you in mind. He knew that He would forgive your iniquity, your rebellion, and your sin.
He doesn’t excuse the guilty though. That’s why Moses wasn’t good enough. It was going to take Jesus to really finish the job. All of Israel’s guilt: from the grumbling and complaining to the Golden Calf, was put on Jesus. He took it on Himself. He took your guilt, too. Your guilt died with him and you are promised a new guilt-free life by faith in His resurrection.
At the end of the book of Exodus, the Tabernacle is done. Moses set it up exactly the way God told him to. I don’t know if he took one last look inside or not but then the glory of God’s presence filled the Tabernacle and Moses wasn’t able to go inside ever again.
The next time Moses would be in the immediate special presence of Yahweh’s glory would be on the Mount of Transfiguration when he met with Jesus to talk about His exodus, when Jesus would save the world through the cross and resurrection.
Hebrews 12 talks about two mountains. One of them is Sinai, it’s ominous and terrifying, you wouldn’t survive an attempt to climb it. The other is Zion. Calvary. The mountain Jesus climbed for you—because He did, you can boldly come before the throne of God’s grace as we wait for the Lord to return. Kinda like how the people waited for Moses to return.
You would think that after all we have seen and heard we would remain faithful. But that’s not really how our story goes either, is it?